


Trois

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-19 11:06:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2386088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You are a pessimistic son of a bitch, aren't you?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trois

**Author's Note:**

> I got my first OT3 tickle this afternoon reading otpprompts on Tumblr. Since I don’t ship Strauss and Hotch in canon (for the most part), it wasn’t as easy on paper as it was in my head. But I love all three characters so I gave it a try.

“Hello there.” Erin smiled as she put the grocery bag on the counter and bent to pet the dog. Mudgie panted and happily wagged his tail. “It’s not quite dinner time bud but I think I’ll make an exception tonight. Do you want chicken or surf and turf?” she asked. When Mudgie barked twice, Erin nodded. “Surf and turf it is. I’ll be right back.”

She disappeared into the pantry and opened the bag of dog food. He ate the expensive brand, made with real meat, veggies, and all-natural products. Dave had been a Dog Chow guy for years but she told him that this would give Mudgie more energy, make his coat shinier, and help him live longer. He let her have her way.

“Hey.”

Erin screamed, covering her mouth as she came out of the pantry and he was standing there. She nearly dropped the measuring cup full of dog food. Hotch did a quick move to keep it off the floor.

“I thought I was home alone.” She got her bearings and moved away from him. “Well I thought it was me and the dog.”

“I took a half-day today; boss’ orders.” 

“You are the boss.”

“Isn’t it great when things work out the way you want them too.” He smiled.

She almost said I wouldn’t know but Erin kept her answer to herself. She just put a little smile on, went over to the dog bowl, and fed Mudgie. He immediately jumped on dinner. Jack the Ripper probably could’ve came in the house at that point and Erin would have to fend for herself. She petted his head before walking over to the sink to wash her hands. Hotch followed her with his eyes; Erin felt them burning a hole through her.

“I was going to make some dinner for one. If you're hungry, I’ll make it two.”

“I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

“It’s not an inconvenience…I was going to cook anyway. Does chicken stir fry sound good?”

“Yes.” Hotch nodded. “I appreciate it Erin; I know you're mad at me.”

“I'm not mad at you.” shaking her head, Erin went to the counter. She began to unpack the groceries.

“We haven’t been speaking.”

“We've both been busy.”

“Can we not?” Hotch asked. “There's been a lot of tension and I want to clear the air.”

“Is that why the note from David says he's going to be home late. Did he plan this ambush?”

“I don't know.” Hotch shrugged. He sat down on one of the stools. Now only the island separated the two of them. “I hope you don’t think this is an ambush.”

“Sometimes there will be tension. Our jobs make it impossible to be on friendly terms at all times.”

“You and Dave seem to do alright.”

Erin laughed, and rolled her eyes. She grabbed two beers from the refrigerator as she put away the apples. If they were going to do this drinking might be the way to go. She put one on the island for Hotch and opened hers.

“David and I have known each other for about half of our lives.” She said. “And most of that time we were fighting. I think we get off on fighting though so there’s that. You and I…we’re new.”

“I've known you for nearly five years.” Hotch said.

“In terms of the other man in my life, Aaron, we are in our infancy. Every relationship has stutter steps along the way and ours will be no different. I do my best to never bring work home but that’s not always probable. We all go to the same place every day. I was upset, I'm pretty much over it, and surely things will return to normal over the next couple of days.”

“And if they don’t?” he asked.

“You are a pessimistic son of a bitch, aren't you?”

That made Hotch smile. The truth was that he and Erin made decent lovers but he was doubtful they would ever be friends. This relationship he was in at the moment was more complicated than Hotch ever imagined. He wanted Dave. He was finally able to let go of most of his apprehension and pursue a relationship with another man. 

The thing was that Dave Rossi was a package deal. He’d been with Erin for years now, settled into a comfortable and loving relationship. Hotch wasn’t having an affair…he was having a ménage a trois. The first time Dave said he wanted to bring in Erin, who had so far had found his thing with Hotch bearable, the Unit Chief balked. 

Not only had he never had a threesome in his life, he didn’t want his first one to be with his boss. He gave in to make Dave happy and was really glad that he did. Erin Strauss was a tigress in bed. She fucked Hotch, she fucked Dave, she let them fuck each other…it blew Hotch’s mind. Slowly he became a part of their relationship and not the extra wheel. But that wasn’t always easy. 

He didn’t think something like this could last forever. More than a few times this year alone, Hotch thought he was ready to walk away. The truth was he still wanted Dave. And there was something in him that wanted Erin too. It wasn’t the sex; Hotch actually preferred men but could perform with women. He was just drawn to her. 

She wasn’t Strauss. All these years and he hadn’t known that. Maybe he had no right to any piece of her personal life then. Now he was her personal life, or a part of it anyway. The three of them shared a house, and sometimes shared a bed. It didn’t get more personal than that.

“Sometimes I can be a half-empty kinda guy, yeah.”

“Sometimes?” Erin raised her eyebrow. She drank some of her beer and then went into the cabinet for the wok. She needed seasonings, brown rice, chicken stock, no stick cooking spray. Pulling the red and yellow peppers from the grocery bag, Erin put them on the counter in front of Hotch. She handed him a knife from the block and then went into the pantry to recycle the paper bag. “You're on pepper duty.” 

“Am I cutting them big or small?” Hotch asked. He went over to another cabinet to get the cutting board.

“Somewhere in the middle. Do you mind music?”

“No, music would be good.”

If songs were on the radio, he wouldn’t have to fill in the conversation gaps. Erin already knew this about him. It wasn’t that Aaron Hotchner didn’t talk much, she knew he and Dave could talk for hours. He didn’t talk to her much. The awkwardness sometimes reached serious levels. 

Erin didn’t dislike Hotch. She couldn’t lie and say she always felt that way but recently things had changed. This wasn’t just about making Dave happy. Erin loved her husband; she’d loved him in some way, shape, or form for most of her life now. She knew he was a bisexual with a nearly equal male and female preference. 

From the time they decided to get serious, Erin told him that cheating was unacceptable. He'd done it in the past…thinking with his cock instead of his brain. Dave said he was past that point in his life, he’d learned from his mistakes. Then Aaron Hotchner got a divorce. Then Aaron Hotchner was admitting he might have feelings for Dave too. Then Dave was at an impasse. 

Erin was in the same place. She loved her husband and wanted him to be happy. She knew there were things Aaron could offer him sexually that she could not. She also knew that Dave had been feeling the flavor for Hotch since the younger man was in the Academy. Sharing him sexually didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would. 

Of course this was in theory because Erin hadn’t given the go ahead to anything yet. Not that Dave had asked, but it was only a matter of time. She didn’t want to share him emotionally. She never wanted him to love someone else like he loved her. She never wanted him to curl his body around Aaron’s on rainy mornings or dance barefoot with him to Al Green songs. 

She wanted to be the first to read his stories. She wanted to be the one who made fun of him when he took a run and came back huffing and puffing. She wanted to be his baby. There was just no way in hell that Aaron Hotchner could be a fling. So Erin accepted an unconventional arrangement. 

Now she had two men instead of one. Any woman who thought that was awesome would be in for a surprise. Without Dave, she and Aaron Hotchner wouldn’t even be friends much less sometime lovers. With Dave it was easy, with Aaron it was work. Erin wasn’t going to give up but she couldn’t figure out if that was because she never backed down from a challenge or if in the end she was afraid of losing Dave.

 _Out of touch, out of reach yeah  
You can try to get away from me  
I'm in love, I'm in deep yeah  
Hypnotized, take me to my knees  
I gotta know tonight  
If you're alone tonight  
Can't stop this feeling  
Can't stop this fight_…

Erin sang under her breath to Def Leppard as she put the chicken into the wok. She added seasoning salt, coarse pepper, onion powder, and a little curry seasoning for an extra kick. She had no idea how it was gonna turn out but a little experimentation never hurt. Hotch walked over with peppers on the cutting board. She moved over and gave him room to pour them into the wok himself.

“Team work.” He said.

“Something like that.”

Hotch leaned and kissed her temple. Erin smiled but had no other response. He was trying, so she would do her best not to shut him down completely. There were people Erin shut down once and would do it every time the opportunity arose even decades later. 

It wasn’t about holding a grudge, the way people acted said a lot about them. If you hurt her once then the odds were low that Erin would give you a second chance. Hotch had never hurt her and whatever the transgression was this time it was bound to happen again. He came to her first and put himself out there. This time she would let him back in.

***

“My compliments to the chef.” Hotch smiled as Erin got up from the table. She had her plate in one hand and took his in the other.

“Well it was only chicken stir fry. Even I'm not so bad a cook as to mess up chicken stir fry.”

“I think between the two of us we better be glad Dave is here or we’d starve.”

“I wouldn’t starve. What do you think expensive restaurants are for?”

“That would weigh on your wallet after a while.” Hotch replied.

“Silly man,” she laughed. “I never said I was paying for it.”

“Ahh yes.” He nodded. “That was quite silly of me.”

“Do you want to break open this bottle of wine?” Erin asked. “I bought those mini red velvet cakes from Potomac Pastries and they go very well with Riesling.”

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” Hotch asked. He'd already had two beers and was working on a third.

“I don’t like drinking alone.” Erin said. “But I will if I have to. Besides, it’s Friday…we’re supposed to get tipsy. Jack doesn’t have a soccer game tomorrow does he?”

“No. I've got him on Saturday evening through Sunday. We’re going to be at the condo.”

Seven year old Jack knew them as Uncle Dave and Aunt Erin. He had no idea that they had such an intimate relationship with his father. Whenever he and Hotch were together, they spent time at the condo in Alexandria that Hotch still owned. The rest of the time he was with his Aunt Jessie and Uncle Sam. 

Hotch loved his son very much but the truth was that his work kept him traveling more days of the year than he was home. If it was one thing he wanted for Jack it was some kind of stable home life. He deserved to have one bed to sleep in most nights and spaces for him to be a kid in. Someday Hotch wanted to be a full time dad again, not that he had ever been one to begin with. 

Haley was gone and he had made promises. He hadn’t really kept them as of yet. He was still figuring out his own mind and didn’t want his son to get lost in the shuffle. Jessie would make sure of that.

“I’ll have some whiskey and you have some wine.” He said. “We’ll pop something in the DVD player that makes us both weep.”

“ _Imitation of Life_ was on TCM last week.” Erin said as she grabbed the corkscrew and opened the wine bottle. “I recorded it on the DVR.”

“Are you going to be able to handle my sobbing?”

“I guess we’re about to find out.” She smiled. Erin filled her wine glass, grabbed the bottle, walking through the kitchen door towards the den. Hotch got up from the table and followed.

***

Dave loosened his tie as soon as he walked through the door. He put the alarm on and dropped his bag by the hall closet. He left his shoes there as well. His socks were a bit wet from the rain outside. He wanted to park in the garage but Erin’s car was already there. That meant she was home. 

Dave wasn’t quite sure what she would do after work. Since the weekend was coming and they were all in town he hoped she would relax at home. The house was quiet; Dave could hear the TV playing in the den. He walked toward the sound, expecting to see Erin curled up on the couch with the dog watching a documentary or reruns of _Law and Order_.

“Hey…oh hey.”

Erin and Hotch both looked up and smiled. When they said hey back, in unison, Dave smiled as well.

“What's this?” he asked.

“Whiskey, wine, and _Imitation of Life_.” 

“How much have you two been drinking?” 

“Enough for Aaron to admit he's had a thing for John Gavin since about the 10th grade…and Lana Turner too.”

“Everyone has a thing for Lana Turner.” Dave said

“Are you telling me that I'm not special?” Hotch raised his eyebrow.

“Yes, I am.” Dave nodded.

“You OK?” Erin asked.

“Long night with my publisher. I'm gonna have to do some rewrites and revisions that I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with right now. I have some thinking to do; I have a headache like you wouldn’t believe.”

“C'mere,” Erin had been lying in Hotch’s arms but she sat up. “Let me start you on the road to feeling better.”

Dave headed straight into her open arms. Coming home to them as many nights as he could was his ultimate happiness. He exhaled, wrapping his arms around her.

“That’s kind of perfect.” Dave muttered into the crook of her neck. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

When Dave sat up, he leaned over and gave Hotch a hello kiss. Dave caressed his cheek.

“I'm going to take a hot shower, drink something strong, take something strong, and knock out.”

“There's some Ambien in my nightstand if you want.” Erin said.

“Sounds like a plan, baby.” He got up from the couch and sighed. “I’ll leave you two to John Gavin and Lana Turner. Come to bed soon.”

“Will do. One more whiskey and I’ll have to tuck Hotch in though.”

“I'm sure he’ll get a kick out of that.”

They watched him walk away. Erin picked up her wineglass, sipping it as she rested against Hotch again. He put his arm around her shoulder.

“He loves you.” he said.

“The feeling is pretty mutual. Hey,” she looked up at him. “Where’s that weeping I was promised?”

“Be careful what you wish for, Erin…I think it’s only a matter of time before there are plenty of tears.”

“Ae you being pessimistic again? Drink more whiskey; it'll go away.”

Hotch just shrugged, holding her closer and trying to put his mind back on the movie. It had been a long day, a long couple of days. The best thing for him to do right now was to let it all go and have a good weekend. Whether it ended well or was an unmitigated disaster was up to Hotch. It was always up to him but sometimes in his personal life he relinquished control so he wouldn’t have to make the hard decisions. He knew quite well from experience that just because a decision was hard didn’t mean that it was bad.

***


End file.
